Our separate paths
by 12347
Summary: Rouge is a spy, jewel thief, and a part time bar tender. Shadow is a ex G.U.N agent getting by in life by doing whatever he wants when he wants. Will these two be able to come together again to complete an important mission. Some Shadouge
1. Chapter 1

Together bat was a spy that worked for G.U.N headquarters and currently she was bored to death I'm a meeting with her co-captain." These strike patterns might prove to be dangerous."He explained to hos team. " I am currently advising the leaders that we should investigate eggma- ROUGE." Suddenly she woke up due to the yelling of her irritable boss. " Is your nap more important to the task at hand."

She rolled her eyes obviously annoyed be her co-captains ignorance. "Actually it is better for me to get some sleep , you obviously don't know what you're talking about." Her co-captain immediately became irritated and he continued with his lesson. " As I was saying we should keep more tabs on German's activities, and-"" Sir no mean for disrespect but those st r like patterns look just like the ones from the middle test run we took last week." The co-captain looked like he wanted to choke rouge then and there but even if he tried he wouldn't have succeeded. "MEETING ADJOURNED!"He yelled. Every body left the conference room although Rouge lingered around enough long enough to see her fellow worker/friend,Fiona, making out with the co-captain. "I knew that bitch was getting paid more then the rest of us." Rouge thought out loud. "What bitch" asked Sonic popping out from no where. "Your ex-girlfriend that's who.""You mean Amy? We all know you don't like her rouge." Rouge didn't always have a problem with Amy, as a matter of fact Amy disliked Rouge first.

Amy dated Sonic in their freshmen and sophomore year of high school and Rouge became friends with Sonic in her sophomore year of high school. So when sonic dumped her, Amy assumed it was because of Rouge. In all honestly Rouge didn't give a rat's ass about Amy until senior year, when she poured milk on Rouge one random day. After high school Amy wanted to be friends with Rouge but could not take that girls personality and optimism." I'm talking about Fiona ,dumb ass!" snapped Rouge. " Whatever I got to go." Rouge nonchalantly yawned. Rouge spent half of her days working at G.U.N but she was also a bar tender along with her best friend Marie. Marie has long Jet black hair with piercing green eyes and she was not the type of person to fuck with.

There was the occasional pervert that would come into the bar but she could handle herself just fine. Rouge unlocked the door to her two floor apartment and checked her safe to make sure all of her jewels were still there. She hopped on her couch and flipped through the channels on her Tv and after seeing that nothing was on Tv and that the news was just talking about some stupid bank robbery, She couldn't help but wander where her old roommate had gone. Shadow had previously lived with Rouge not to long along. Yet that whole time they were basically invisible to each other. Both of them didn't really hang around the apartment a lot because Rouge always was at G.U.N, the bar, a club, or off stealing jewels and Shadow did Lord knows what. One day she just came home and all his stuff was gone. She didn't really miss Shadow but sometimes she would get pretty lonely. Rouge decided to take a long nap after all when that clock hit 8:30, it was time to go to work.


	2. Chapter 2

Somewhere in East Crawford City...

Shadow Sat in his room,which really wasn't his room at all actually it was the basement of a gift shop that a girl he knew owned and by girl he knew I mean a girl who has a crush on him and he's taking advantage of her kindness. " hey, Shadow I brought you some breakfast if you want some of course," Hannah said in that overly joyful annoying tone. " No, Hannah I ate earlier!" " well, I'll leave some here just in case you change your mind, so what r u doing, do u have plans today, maybe we can eat dinner together at this new restaurant down the street, or brunch,wait you already ate breakfast how silly am I hahaha." " Hannah just set the food on the counter and go away...please,""Did something happen yesterday you seem cranky today" " what r u talking about I act like this everyday""No this is not the pedestrian I fell in love with"" pedestrian...wha-what r u talking about""you must be sick, I'm going to run to the store right quick be right back. As soon as Hannah left the shop. Shadow started packing all his stuff and was getting ready to move into his new apartment all the way on the other side of the city. The area around there wasn't even close to being considered safe but it was better then staying with Hannah any longer. He had been planing to leave for the last few months but had to wait because they were fixing up the apartment. He gave them the time limit of 3 weeks or he threatened to beat all of them. Shadow didn't think any one should keep him waiting, he has the ability to take out the planet if he really put his mind to it but as we all know waiting, relying on others, and working are all elements of the cost of living and unless he was on a G.U.N mission these everyday things are what he was reduced to. He arrived at his new shitty apartment at midnight but to him it was perfect because it was his. For the last year and 1/2 he has been staying at different people's places. Oddly enough the first person he was with was Sonic ,then eggma, next was Rouge, last was Hannah. Honestly if he had to pick anyone of them to live with it would be Rouge. Mainly because she ignored him the most. This was mainly the only reason he could tolerate Rouge,but the rest of his friends bothered him so much he had to get out that city and move to East Crawford which was hours away. Shadow decided It was time to get some fresh air so he went on a walk. Suddenly 8 people ran out of a bank two of the people hopped into a big truck and started chasing the other 6. Shadow quickly teleported them out of the way until he realized there was another person. He quickly pushed them out of the way and after wards he only saw headlights.


	3. Chapter 3

p style="text-align: center;"Rouge checked in into the bar so that she could begin her shift. Her friend Maria was already serving vodkas to several people. " why are you so late today, you better be happy it's not club night and that the managers are on a short vacation. " I'm not worried about Derek getting mad over nothing, Plus we all know he has a slight crush on you so you're just going to have to bail me out again. " You can be so reckless sometimes" " you know you love me". At that moment Sonic walked into the bar holding his cell phone in his hand. " hey Speedy ( nickname) what brings you here" " I'm guessing you didn't hear about why happened to Shadow". " let me guess he got arrested and the only one willing to bail him out is that naive girl that lets him live in her shop, what was her name? Annie?" Sonic then walked to the Tv hung on the wall and turned it on to the news channel. The reporter was making a statement about some bank robbery. "Several witnesses has stated that a hedgehog has stated that a hedgehog saved the 7 victims,but in the process he was hit by a truck. Is it possible that this brave hero was no other then our beloved Sonic the hedgehog? We are currently trying to enter the Gwennett hospital in order to confirm our suspicions,"Marie then turned off the Tv and nonchalantly stated " looks like Shadow has been causing commotion again."" Well don't you think we should drop in on him, I mean we haven't seen him since he left Rouge's apartment.? Rouge scoffed at the very idea. Shadow would not want us to visit him especially when he was even a least bit vulnerable and he's probably not even vulnerable,Rouge has been his partner for years and she knows that the moment he got hit by that truck his wounds were immediately healed. "Sonic, grow a brain, what makes you think Shadow would want to see any of us?"Rouge snapped. " Well you're right about that Rouge but we could use this as an opportunity to get a free vacation out of it. East Crawford City does have a lot of tourist attractions." sonic confirmed making a very good point. Then a man walked up to Rouge and ordered two bottles of champagne, which she effortlessly served to him. Marie then continued with the conversation" You mean attractions we've already seen about 1000 times. You know I had a battle on top of that rollercoaster in Twisty World." Sonic immediately came up with a solution to her statement" Well we can spend the majority of our time there clubbing. Rouge honestly didn't see any reason not to " I'm down, when are we going?"" Probably two days from now, What about you Marie are you up for it?" " Nah, I already used up all my vacation time at the bar and I need some time for myself after going on all those missions last Month." Sonic a accepted that answer and walked out the bar. Rouge finished the rest of her shift and after a little debate with Marie she ended up with the task of closing down the place. After she finished checking all of the back doors, the bell at the front door rung, meaning that someone had just come into the shop. " We're close come back tomorrow." Rouge yelled without even turning around. Suddenly someone started to choke her from behind she immediately grabbed their muscular arm and flipped him over her. His body ended up hitting the bar counter. He got up and pulled a knife from his pocket and rouge pulled it from his hands. She then elbowed him in the ribs and when he hit the ground she did her signature move called... stomp em in the nuts. /p 


	4. Chapter 4

East Crawford 12:00 am.

Shadow was beyond irritated for two reasons. One, because the idiot reporters outside thought that he was that perky asshole Sonic. Two is the fact that these people thought that he could've actually been hurt in that car crash. "Guess I should get some sleep if I'm going to break out of here tomorrow."he thought out loud. " Only you would think of a hospital as a prison." Shadow immediately knew who it was "Oh no, not this bitch again". He put on a smile that was obviously fake"Hey Hannah, what brings you here.""Well if I find out my one and only true love is in the hospital what do you expect me to do."Shadow rolled his eyes " look Hannah I appreciate you letting me,a stranger , live in your shop but I'm moving on now and I suggest you do to."Hannah suddenly started to laugh " Oh Shadow you're no stranger, you've saved the world lots of times.""Wait did you just call me Shadow?"Hannah started to laugh even more then before " You really expect me to love a man and not know their real name, I knew you were Shadow this whole time and honestly I've had a crush on you ever since you first showed on camera.

It was becoming obvious to him that Hannah was truly just one of his groupies. He pressed the button to call in the nurse" Who let this little girl into my room, I have no idea who she is and has never meet any one who even remotely looks like her." The nurses immediately escorted Hannah out of Shadows room. Suddenly the room phone started to ring and he answered. " What?" he immediately caught an attitude when he realized who was on the phone, although it's not like he didn't have one before. "Hey Shads ," knuckles replied on the phone.

"Knuckles I already know you can't stand me so let's cut the crap and get to the point."There was really only one main reason for Knuckles not liking Shadow,and it was Rouge. He has had a crush on her ever since the junior year of high school,but he hated the fact that Rouge and Shadow spent so much time together, mostly when they were on missions. "Well, be an asshole then. Anyway me, Sonic, Amy, Espio, and Rouge are coming to visit you tomorrow.""Please don't." Knuckles rolled his eyes but then remembered he was on the phone."Anyway do me a favor and stay away from Rouge."Shadow scoffed "Who said I wanted to see her, as a matter of fact how is she? Last time I saw you two together, you were pissed because she rejected you." "Shut up,you don't know anyth-," " Whatever, it would be best if none of you came." Shadow immediately hung up the phone after he made that statement. He didn't feel like listening to Knuckles struggle to come up with a comeback.

He sat and thought for a while before he came to a final conclusion, that he needed to get out of the hospital before the faker (Sonic), the stalker (Amy), the jackass (Knuckles), the dumbass (Espio),and Rouge get into East Crawford. Shadow tried to get up,but then realized that his left leg and right shoulder wasn't finished healing. "Why aren't they healed yet?" he thought out loud. Then he realized that his rings were gone and he knew who probably had them,he then buzzed in for the nurse. "Excuse me lady,but we're did you put my rings.""I,m sorry but we put most of your personal items in a safe in the basement."The nurse could visibly see how pissed off her patient was getting. Shadow calmly stated "Well go get them.""I'm sorry sir but I don't have the authority."He then cut her off "Does this look like a face that gives a damn,now are you going to go get my stuff or not." The nurse stood there and shook her head."Fine I'll get it myself." Next thing he knew five male nurse came out of nowhere and started to try and hold him down. Which resulted in him throwing all of them at a corner in the room. The female nurse from before came and stuck a two needles in his back. Shadow didn't pass out but he was no longer able to move. " Great,"


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hey guys I've finally updated again. Don't worry I'm going to finish this story, despite how unpopular it is right now. I finally made an account and I told myself I was going to finish this story no matter what. So review and let me know how I'm doing. I'll try and make these chapters longer to, okay back to the story.

Chapter 5

Knuckles waited impatiently outside of Rouge's apartment. "You act like we have all today, we're trying to get to East Crawford by noon you know," he snapped and he then caught the suitcase that was thrown at him. "Thanks knuckles, I accidentally dropped my suitcase. You know you're like an ugly singer with a good voice, best for back-up." Rouge took her suitcase out of knuckles and while he stood in the middle of the room getting angry. "Hurry up knuckles we don't have all day," Rouge shouted from the hallway.

"You know what Rouge, you don't have the power to make me irritated any more. I got over my little crush on you long ago."knuckle said he the most calm tone he could muster. She then laughed at his attempt to make a comeback "You're so in denial," and out of her side vision she could she the blush on his face.

They made it outside of the apartment building and went to the car, where Sonic and Amy were waiting. " What took you guys so Long, don't tell me you decided to make out in the hallways."Sonic teased. Rouge immediately made a remark "Where's Espio, did he leave because you and Amy decided to give each other boners""actually I'm right here,are you guys ready to go." Espio asked while appear in out of thin air.

3 hours later

Currently Rouge was sitting in a crowded hot van and there was no way in hell Espio was going to allow her to turn on the AC, he was cold-blooded so he got cold slot faster then the rest of us. The sitting positions in the car was arranged so that Espio was driving, Rouge was in the passenger seat, knuckles was in the back seat Behind the driver , Amy was in the middle, and Sonic was in the back seat Behind the passenger. This was just position three. East Crawford City was exactly 10 hours away so each hour they would rotate so that everybody drove at least once.

Position 1. Position 2. Position 4. Position 5.

Driver :Amy Knuckles. Rouge. Sonic

passenger seat: knuckles. Espio. Sonic. Amy

seat Behind the passenger: Espio. Rouge. Amy. Knuckles

in the middle: Rouge. Sonic. Knuckles. Espio

seat Behind the driver: sonic. Amy. Espio. Rouge

4th hour

Sonic suddenly started to strike up a conversation with Rouge "It's been a while since we've seen our buddy Shadow hasn't it," Rouge chucked at the statement " Since when did you and Shadow become buddies?" Sonic waited started to think about how to answer that question. The car had become silent again, since everybody in the back seat was asleep. "I don't know, I've always liked to think we were but honestly the only person I think he ever really got along with was you,"Sonic responded. A slight blush started to form on Rouge's cheeks "What makes you say that,"she asked hoping that the hotness she felt on her face wasn't blush. " Hey Rouge, when we get to East Crawford lets just enjoy our vacation and let Shadow be...Shadow."He said while ignoring Rouge's question. " Wonder why he changed his mind, whatever I'll still stop by Gwennett hospital when I get the chance." She silently thought in her head.

7th hour

Rouge was glad that during all the positions she didn't have to sit no where near Amy. Who was currently glaring at Rouge because Sonic choose to lay his head on Rouge's shoulder instead of hers. She started to get annoyed with Amy's death stares "Um, do you have a problem?"

"You know I try to get along with you Rouge but it's not working and I can honestly say I don't like you" at this moment Sonic started to wake up and Rouge began to laugh.

She then shrugged her shoulders and said "I don't really care if you like me or not".

Amy got offended and tried to make a comeback "that's funny because I-". Rouge cut Amy off mid sentence "Oh you think I'm funny, thank you for the-" "Yeah Rouge you're little act is cute, but-" "Oh you think I'm funny AND cute, damn I must be on a roll tonight. Let's add funny,cute, AND smart!"

Sonic,Knuckles,and Espio were laughing as Amy tried to make a comeback at Rouge. Amy began to lose her temper " At least I don't have those satellites you call

ears."" Yeah, but I bet if we voted right now about which of us looks better I'd probably win,". Sonic suddenly jumped into the conversation raise your hand if you think Rouge is more attractive then Amy . Every in the car raised their hand ( except for Amy). "Well Rouge is obviously the winner here, now I'm hungry so I say we go to Chipotle.

10 hour

Amy parked the van in the parking lot of the hotel they would stay in. Rouge immediately opens the car door and jumps out "I've never wanted to get out of a place so badly."Sonic then stepped out after her "This hotel looks expensive, who's paying for all of this again?" Amy came around to were Sonic was staying and said " well my parents of course. I've made it to where you guys share a room an me an Rouge share a room, but I can always make arrangements for you darling." Espio again appeared out of no where " let's just check in so we can start our vacation.

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Rouge finally settled and unpacked her stuff and was currently sitting on the bed looking for something to watch on Tv. Suddenly Amy came out of the bathroom wearing what Rouge could only describe as a slutty school girl outfit. " Hey Rouge how about you and me go clubbin tonight. "Amy come on now, last time you went to a club you tried to go on stage and rip you're cloths off." "So, you stopped me didn't you. Come on everything will be fine. Whenever Rouge went to a club with Amy, she always ended up taking care of her because the dumb bitch would get drunk and do something stupid. The experience was different whenever she went by herself or with Marie, she would actually have fun especially when she was with Marie.

Plus she had already planned to go visit Shadow in the hospital and she wasn't about to choose AMY over Shadow. "Amy, I already have plans for tonight and if you're really worried about what might happen to you at the club, just don't drink." " DON'T DRINK! Are you insane how could you go to a club and NOT drink. Whatever you're no fun I'll just ask Sonic to come with me.

"He won't say yes." " And how do you know." "Call it a educational guess'" Amy then left the room and Rouge decided to get some rest before she went to go visit Shadow.

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Rouge woke up at 9:15 pm and saw that Amy was not in the room. "Probably went to some club, wonder who she went with" she silently thought to herself. She then walked into the the hotel room next door to check on what the guys were, but after seeing that none of them were in the room she decided to leave. She began to make her way to the Gwennett hospital which was nothing but a 3 mile walk away from the hotel. The more Rouge walked the more she began to realize how bad a neighbourhood this side of East Crawford really was. She saw homeless people everywhere, drug dealers were all around the hidden shadows of the allies, and she actually saw two police officers smoking weed in their car ( which was disguised as a regular car). " I Can't believe out of all the places to move he moved here." Rouge rolled her eyes even though nobody was looking.

She finally made it to the Gwennett hospital and walked to the front desk lady. " Excuse me, but can you tell me what room Shadow the hedgehog is staying in." The nurse closed the book she was looking in, which had the room numbers of patients in the hospital. Lucky for Rouge the page was in the S section and she saw Shadow room number clearly, floor E room 524. The nurse gave a fake apologetic look " I'm so sorry, but we're not letting him have visitors. After all there are a lot of reporters trying to get a look at him. Rouge put on a smile to not alarm the nurse " That's fine but can you point me in the direction on the bathrooms." " Go straight to you're left." Rouge left but as soon as the nurse went back to her book, Rouge made a dash to the right and went up the exit stair way.

She climbed up until she made it to floor E and made her way to room 524. She knocked on the door but in response received a grumpy " Go Away,". " Yep that's Shadow for you." She thought to herself. Rouge opened the door and there on the bed Sat Shadow, who was no where near surprised to see Rouge. His frown turned into a smirk and he said " It's been a while."

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Okay so far this is the chapter I'm most proud of. I finally started to put spaces between my lines and I made this slot longer then the other chapters, but who knows maybe the next chapter will be longer. please comment/review. Constructive criticism is welcomed. :)


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you for the advice,I appreciate it. I'll try it in my next chapter. :)

Chapter 6

He attempted to get out of his bed, but came to no avail due to the injury his left leg was still recovering from. Rouge was immediately by his side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.."So you can survive a fall out of space without a scratch in sight, but a car crash has gotten you relying on one leg?"

Shadow gave up on trying to stand and sat back down on the bed. "Yeah well my right arm isn't doing to good either, and this healing would be a lot faster if those nurse didn't take my rings." Rouge began to laugh at the predicament Shadow had gotten himself into, he was hit by a truck, reporters still think that he's Sonic,the nurse took his rings, and he 's healing slower because he doesn't have his rings. "Well looks like you're going to be in here for a while, anyway it's been nice but my time is short besides I have to go find Amy anyway." Rouge went by the window and began to make her exit until Shadow stopped her." Wait, Rouge can you do me a favor?"She closed the window and made her way back to Shadow."If you name the right price and depending on the favor of course."

"Can you get my rings back for me?" Rouge thought about it for a second and had made up her mind. "I want 50 crystals at least and if by some miracle I somehow end up having a hard time getting you're rings, which I assure won't happen, I'm doubling the price." Shadow began to laugh, of all things she owed him for all the times he saved her ass."Rouge I have saved you many times before, remember prison island, so of all things you owe me, so hurry up and go get them. He said that statement in almost a playful matter.

Rouge rolled her eyes at the fact that Shadow brought up prison island again. He could've left her in the security that was going to blow up, but instead he made a different call and saved her and Chris. He's never going to let her live that down and she knew it. "Are you really bringing that up again, whatever I'll go get you're stupid rings,but I do think I should get something in return,and I will."Shadow began to become impatient because Rouge was still in the room and in the most nonchalant way he said"Yeah well stop babbling about a reward you won't get,and start looking for my rings."

Rouge walked back down to the main floor and made sure to go to another front desk lady just in case the original got suspicious. While walking to the other front desk and considered ditching the little assignment Shadow had given her and to just go find out what Amy and the guys were doing (probably clubbin). It didn't matter even if she wanted to leave she knew there was something inside her that wouldn't let her. "Excuse me , but me and my...grand dad are checking out and I would like to know where his stuff is. The front desk lady got off the phone and gave the same fake-ass apologetic face as the other front desk lady. " I'm sorry, but we need to see the patient with you.

Rouge quickly scooped out the waiting room and spotted a old man in a wheelchair in the corner of the room. She rushed over to the old man an rolled him over to the front desk."Here he is, I thought he was by my side a second ago." The front desk lady started to type on her computer "what's his name, please?" Rouge quickly thought of a well known last name that started with "S". " Smith is his last name, but his nurse did make a scheduling mistake and he might not be scheduled to leave today."

The lady looked at Rouge and saw no sign of her lying " Wow, surprisingly you're the only Smith that is currently checked into this hospital and I guess you're right he's not checking out until a few weeks from now."

The lady got up from her desk and motioned for Rouge to follow her, she lead them to a door on the left all way right next to the bathrooms. She unlocked the door and quickly said " His belongings are in the basement, check section 19 and look for a locker that has the word "Smith" on it. Rouge waited for the lady to leave and when she saw that the women was helping another patient she stuck a nearby stool in the basement doorway, rolled the old man back to his spot, and slipped into the basement. She made sure that the stool stayed at the doorway, so that she wouldn't get locked in.

The basement looked more like a dungeon, there were rusty broken pipes hanging from the ceiling and rats rushing across the floors. "Do they really keep peoples things in this shit hole?" She silently wandered to herself. The dem light made it hard to clearly see any detailed features the basement may have had. Rouge took out her I phone and turned the flashlight feature on, the light showed that there was a wall on her left, a hallway in front of her that was labeled section 1, and a hallway on her right .

She went down the main hallway on her right and walked until she saw section 19. She looked for a locker that said shadow,and after about 20 minutes of searching came to no avail. "This is ridiculous, why am I busting my ass trying to get something that is not a jewel or something that will benefit me. If he really wanted his rings back, he should've brought his ass down here instead of telling me to get them." Rouge continued to look for Shadows locker, Until she saw a small blue light in the far corner of the section. When Rouge made her way to the light she realized that it was coming from a metal locker that looked 100 times better then the poor lockers around it. The blue light was coming from a small box on the locker that seemed to be waiting on a password. She looked at the name tag and to her surprise it read Shadow. "What the hell, why does his locker have a damn password on it?"

Next thing she knew she felt a strong arm go around her waist and a hand go over her mouth. "Don't move or you die." Rouge was sure that the voice was familiar, but it didn't matter there was no way she was going to die trying to get something she honestly didn't care for. She opened her mouth and bite down on the strangers arm. " What the fuck, Rouge!", Shadows voice echoed throughout the hospitals basement walls. " Don't get mad with me dumbass,that's what happens when you go creepin behind someone." Rouge said in a rather irritated tone. Shadow calmed down after she made that statement. " whatever I'll get you back another time, besides I shouldn't have been able to sneak up on you like that especially in my current state, next time you should keep you're guard up." As always Rouge immediately came up with a comeback " all of this advice is coming from a guy who just got put down by an old stranger danger trick, wait, why are you here, how did you get down here, I thought you were still injured?"

Shadow began to scratch his head " there was a stool in the doorway, you were taking to long , and the pain is bearable now." Rouge rolled her eyes at his impatience and stubbornness " Well I just found out you're locker has a Password lock on it, but I'm pretty sure I can rewire the panel. Rouge then took off the panels frame and researched a few of the wires,suddenly the locker opened. Shadow reached over and immediately grabbed his rings , along with his jacket and wallet. Rouge began to ponder about the situation "Now that you've got you're rings back I can't help but wander why they would put a lock on you're locker, and that panel had some surprising advanced circuits."

Suddenly the basement door busted open and a pack of muscular doctors came rushing down the stairs. Shadow tossed Rouge over his shoulders and started to run "we'll talk about It later, right now my bones aren't healed yet and I can't take them all on right now, so first let's focus on getting the hell out of here!"

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Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

*HAPPY HOLIDAYS*

Chapter 7

Shadow ran down to the 26th hall and to his dismay came to a dead end. He turned back around and started to look for another exit. Rouge, who's body was still laying over Shadows shoulder, looked down the 26th hall and saw a giant vent in the corner of the aisle.

"Shadow look, that vent is big enough for us to fit through, if we can get the frame off of it we're home free!"

Shadow then turned around and saw the vent that Rouge was referring to. "Sounds easy enough."

He gently placed Rouge on the ground and then ripped the frame off of the air vent. Rouge crawled into the vent first and Shadow went in after, luckily the vent was big enough for both of them to crawl through the air ducts side by side.

Rouge was relieved that they escaped the basement but then came to a realization.

"Hey Shadow, what if those men come into the vents and we come to a dead end?"

He laughed at the very idea "Those nurse are triple the size of Shrek, I'll be damned if they can squeeze through that vent entrance."

Rouge decided to change the subject to a more important issue that she couldn't get off her shoulder.

"Back to what I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Why do you think they put such advanced lock controls on YOUR locker. Seriously, did you see that basement, if they wanted to spend money on anything down there it should have been on a reconstruction project."

Shadow pondered about her question before answering." It does give me an uneasy feeling,but I don't think it's anything to worry about."

After a minute or two of crawling Rouge heard voices nearby.

"Do you hear that?"

Shadow had heard the voices a while ago, but didn't say anything because it didn't seem important." Yeah,but it's none of our business, let's just focus on getting out of this hospital.

Rouge heard the voices once again and made out the words jewels and bomb. She decided to completely ignore Shadows advice and took off crawling in the direction off the sounds.

" ROUGE,ROUGE, come back here, haven't you heard of the phrase curiosity killed the cat!"

She stopped and turned around with a smile " Shadow you've known me long enough to know that I'm one nosey bitch, and in my opinion curiosity saved the cat."

She then continued to fast crawl in the direction of the voices, leaving Shadow with a face full of shock. It wasn't because of how eager she was to hear a random conversation,but it was because of what she said and in his head he was thinking...

" What the fuck does that mean?"

Rouge kept crawling into she came to an intersection, she made a turn right and came face to face with another vent entrance. She looked through the vent and saw two men looking at a map of east Crawford City, One was an average size and wore a trench coat with a hoodie so you could only see the back of his head, and the other was a lot taller because he was human and he had an orange mustache and a huge mole that would catch any body's attention. Shadow had just then caught up with her and began to peek inside the the room.

The trench coat dude began to speak.

"We will start by setting off bombs in East Crawford, then we will continue forward and make our way to Mobius City."

The human pressed a button on a computer on the side and the big screen then showed the same map, but with 5 red dots placed on specific locations. Rouge took note of all the locations the red dots were placed over, and she noticed immediately that one red dot was placed over Twisty World. The human then made a statement about the map." These locations are where all the bombs will be, within 3 days make sure all of our people have evacuated these areas."

The guy's voice suddenly got lower.

"You should focus on getting the bombs set up and making them go off, we're being paid 780,000 jewels for this job, and the last thing I want is for you to screw this up."

Suddenly a random male nurse ran into the room and yelled " Shadow has escaped with some girl, their both in the vents!"

The human turned around angry at the sudden outburst.

" How many times have I told you people not to interrupt us when we're talking!"

The guy turned around and put his hand on the man's shoulder to calm him down. Shadows face went into shock when he saw the face of the guy in the trench coat, and Rouge took notice of this. "Shadow, what is it?"

The guy then turned to the nurse and said " they're probably still in the vents, put sleep medicine in the air controls, and turn the air up, it'll knock them out cold."

Both Rouge and Shadow immediately backed away from the vent and fast crawled back the way they came, until they stopped at the intersection from before.

"Which way do we go?"

Rouge looked at Shadow for answers, he was always finding ways out of the most difficult situations. Shadow on the other hand couldn't care less which way they go, he had his rings back and if they ran into a dead end he would bust it open.

"It doesn't matter, let's just keep going forward."

They kept going as fast, however they could feel the sleep medicine in the air and coming in through their mouths and noses. As Rouge crawled through the vent she was surprised at the fact that she started to laugh,it's been a while since her and Shadow got into a situation like this, and she almost forgot how fun it felt. It not like she didn't get into these sort of situations day by day, but with Shadow by her side, he somehow made her feel like she was having more fun then she actually is.

They came to a dead end, Shadow drew his fist back and punch through the metal wall. Which resulted in Rouge and Shadow falling out that portion of the hospital wall and landing in a dumpster beneath them, and when Rouge opened her eyes she realized that Shadow had fallen on her.

"Shadow get up, you're fucking heavy."

He then put his hand over her mouth " Shut up Rouge."

Two hospital nurse ran right by the dumpster and turned a corner, Shadow immediately jumped out the dumpster and helped Rouge out of it to.

"How did those 6 foot giants not notice that hole in the wall?"

Shadow looked at the hospital wall ans shrugged. "I don't know,but I want to get as far away from this hospital as I can. I don't mean to state the obvious,but they seem disturbingly dead set on catching me."

Rouge went over everything that happened to them over the last few hours.

"But why, why do they want you so bad, why didn't they want you to get your rings, why are they trying to set off bombs in East Crawford..., Wait, who was that guy in the room.

Shadow looked at Rouge and came up with a response " His name is Mephiles, he use to be a g.u.n agent until he went rogue. If the hospital is allied with him, then their nothing but trouble."

They went into a comfortable silence after realizing that the Gwennett hospital was in an alliance with some crazy ex G.U.N agent.

"Hey, Shadow."

"What."

" If all of this is true then does that mean those bank robbers hit you on purpose?

"Yeah, probably."

Their atmosphere once again drifted back into silence.

"Hey, Rouge."

"Yeah."

"Where are we going?"

Rouge stopped walking and scratched her head as she realized that they were walking in a random direction.

"Well I have to get back to the hotel, Amy and the guys are probably worried. What about you, do you have a place to stay?"

Shadow suddenly thought about the new apartment he had gotten. "Yeah, I just got this new apartment."

Rouge began to look at Shadow like he was stupid." I suggest you don't go home,but if you get caught that's your fault, I mean if I wanted to catch somebody that's the first place I would check."

He knew she was right and sure as hell wasn't going back to living in Hannah's shop basement.

"I guess I'll come stay at that hotel with you guys."

They walked 3 miles back to the hotel and went to the guys room. When they opened the door it revealed Sonic,Espio,Amy,and Knuckles gambling together. Amy immediately ran up to Rouge and began to scold her.

"And where have you been? You tell me to stop drinking and to stay safe, but when we come back to the hotel you're Lord knows where."

"Well Amy, I woke up and you guys where gone,and I didn't want to stay in the hotel room for the rest of the night. Where were you guys anyway?"

Knuckles stood up and walked over to the door."we were out bowling, why is he with you?"

Every body's eyes were directed to Shadow,who was quietly standing behind Rouge. Shadow cleared his throat and explained what happened at the hospital and what he and Rouge saw through the air vents.

After he was done Sonic spoke up " So in 3 days this dude is going to blow up East Crawford in certain locations, and one of these locations is Twisty Land."

Rouge shook her head in agreement.

"You guessed it."

Amy suddenly got an idea and gained every body's attention. "Well we are planning on going to Twisty World tomorrow. Why don't we just search for the bomb while we're at it?!"

Shadow then had concern on his face.

" What about the other bombs planted around the city, remember we only have three days to try and stop anything."

Rouge noticed that the tone in Shadow voice had change ever since they arrived at the hotel. When he was at the hospital he seemed nonchalant and willing to joke around a little, but now he was just dead serious.

"Hey Shadow, for once I agree with Amy. Before we get into this big fight against this Mephiles guy, I think we all should just hang out and have some fun. This WAS originally a vacation wasn't it."

Shadow understood Rouge's reasoning, but the main reasons he didn't want East Crawford to blow up is because then he would have to go back to Metropolis City. He didn't leave that city because he wanted to get away from Sonic and the others, well that was also a reason,but if he did go back G.U.N would confront him and try and throw him in jail releasing several enemies on his last mission and for leaving without their notice. Then the sound of Espio' s voice snapped him out of his own thoughts.

" Well Shadow, the guys room is full so you're going to have to share with Rouge and Amy.

He shook his head. "Yeah, that's fine."

After Rouge got out of the shower and into her pajamas, Amy went into the bathroom. She hopped on her bed and then looked at Shadow who was sitting on the couch.

"You're not going to change out of those clothes? We were sitting in a dumpster you know."

"Yeah except I don't have anything to change into, all of my clothes are at Hannah's shop basement and I won't go back to get them, their just clothes.

"Oh yeah, Sonic told me to give you this."

She handed him a 2 t-shirts and 2 pairs of pants. " He said feel free to sleep in them."

Shadow took the clothes and sat them beside him. "Hey Rouge let me see you're arm."

She looked at her arm and then looked at him.

"Sure."

He took her arm and in the middle of it, he bite down.

Rouge began to wince at the pain. "Ouch, what the hell are you doing?"

She started to push him off, but of course he was stronger. Shadow keep his grip on her arm for 30 more seconds and the let go.

" What the hell is wrong with you, you fucking weirdo?"

" That's pay back for biting my hand back when we were at the hospital."

Rouge noticed that the part he bite had turned purple. "Oh great, you bruised me."

" Damn Rouge you're skin bruises very easily. Who knows I might just have given you a hickey. Whatever just be happy I didn't draw any blood,like how you did to me."

Amy came out of the bathroom. "Shadow you can use the Shadow now."

"Yeah ok."

Everybody was ready for bed. Amy slept on the bed in the corner of the room, Rouge slept in the bed opposite of it, and Shadow slept on the couch. Shadow was the last one to go to sleep, he couldn't help but wander what G.U.N would do if he tried to go back to them.

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. I hope you guys are liking the story. I feel like it took me a long time to update because I had a lot of Christmas stuff to do, but here it is. Comment/Review


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: For those who don't know what Mephiles looks like search for sonic 2006 Mephiles. He basically looks like Shadow except with blue stripes, and sorry it took so long to come out with this chapter, but my tablet wasn't acting right so it took me some time to finally finish the chapter.

Chapter 8

Rouge woke up to find Shadow laying beside her, she smacked him on the head to wake him up. "I'm sorry were you sleeping?" Rouge asked in an obvious sarcastic tone.

"Not anymore, what do you want?"

"For you to move, you're taking up the whole bed. Why are you in MY bed anyway."

"It was too cold and that blanket was not helping,besides that couch was uncomfortable and if you want more room feel free to sleep on the floor."

He then pushed her out of the bed and tried to drift back into sleep, what he didn't notice was Rouge going to the bathroom and feel in up a bucket of water. She came back to the bed and dumped the whole bucket of water on Shadow. He immediately sat up and gave her a death glare which was returned back at him. Then out of nowhere a pillow hit Shadow in the face, it was obvious that it came from Amy, the only other person in the room.

"Can you two shut up, some people are actually trying to sleep!"

Rouge started grabbing some of her clothes out of her suitcase. "We're all going to get up in an hour, so you might as well start getting ready now."

Rouge went to the bathroom to start getting dressed for the day and soon after wards came a knock at the door.

Shadow made his way over to it and opened the door and found that knuckles was in the hallway.

"What do YOU want?"

Knuckles surprisingly stayed calm and delivered his message. "Sonic says we're going to be leaving a little earlier so start getting ready."

"Is that all?"

" He also told me to give you another outfit just in case you need it."

" Anything else?"

" Uh, Oh yeah he wants you to wash his clothes before you give them back."

" Great are you finish now?" he said sarcastically

"Oh and-"

Shadow slammed the door before Knuckles could get another word out, by the time he got back in the room Amy was in the bathroom and Rouge was trying which of her heels would go best with her outfit. She suddenly started to talk to him without turning around.

"You know you didn't have to slam the door on poor Knuckles, you know he lives his life being dumb and confused."

Shadow rolled his eyes at the joke she made,but couldn't help but agree."Yeah,but just talking to him makes me want to punch him. I don't know,talking to Knuckles is just agitating."

Rouge started to laugh at Shadow for his criticism " Oh and talking to you is so much better."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

" Exactly what you think. You know what, I'm going to do you a favor and write down the top ten downfalls in your personality."

Amy came out the bathroom and overheard the conversation." Rouge don't even try, he's going throw away that list as soon as he gets it. Now I'm about to take a nap so wake me up when we're about to leave."

Rouge began to gather all of her stuff together "Oh yeah we're leaving earlier."

Amy took her pillow and scream into it. "A girl just can't get any sleep around here can she."

"Ok now that we're here we should all split into pairs, I guess."Sonic suggested to the group. Amy immediately started to sequel.

"Sonic you and me are partners, we'll take the east side of the park ok!"

"Yeah sure,no problem." He nervously began to fake laugh

Knuckles made his way over to where Rouge was standing." Hey Rouge, you want to partner up and search the North side?"

" I thought you were over your little crush, Knuckles?" She said with a flirtatious smirk

Knuckles began to blush and started to stumble over his own words." I-I am. I'm j-j-just asking you as a mutra-MUTRAL friend."

"Geez Knuckles why'd it take you so Long to get that one sentence out?"

He started to get irritated due to the fact that Rouge was teasing him." Just answer the damn question Rouge is it a yes or a no"

Rouge started to nonchalantly look at her nails "hmmm,Naaahhh."

"Grghh, come on Espio I'm with you! "

Rouge noticed that the two started to walk away." Wait Knuckles, I don't mind being your partner...Oh well, guess it's you and me Shads."

" It always is."

°°°with Sonic and Amy°°°

"SONIC, WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO GET ON ANY RIDES WITH ME!"

"AMY,why are you yelling I'm right here?"

"I was yelling to try and get my point across."

Sonic started clapping his hands. " mission accomplished"

"I'm bored and your just hanging around the bathrooms and the food courts."

"Amy, you have to understand this isn't just a day of fun. We have to look for the bomb first and we might ride a couple of rides in between breaks. Other then that, focus.

"Sonic I like you, but if you're going to sit here and be boring, I will be forced to go on rides alone."

"Have fun."

" I will and remember that you are replaceable, I can find somebody else to hang out with." She stuck out her tongue and disappeared into the crowd.

"Amy I'm sorry, how about we get on 4 rides and then look for the bomb for the following 4 hours and-Where'd she go?" He turned around and realized that Amy had disappeared into the crowd. "Geez, now I have to look for her to.

°°°with Espio and Knuckles°°°

"Knuckles, you do know that would've been your partner?"

"Yeah well, I changed my mind. She's not even nice to me, so why should I try to get along with her?"

"No your just sensitive, Rouge is pretty much rude to everyone, so you really shouldn't let it bother you that much."

"Whatever, I couldn't care less about your opinion."

Espio rolled his eyes and made a sarcastic remark. "You keep telling yourself that,Knuckles. Hey you want to see a couple of roller coasters before we start this search?"

"Yeah,sure." Knuckles and Espio made their way over to the Terminator, the main attraction on the east side of the park.

"Hey Espio, look over there.

"Knuckles, that's just the control room to the Terminator. What about it?"

"Look at these drag marks." Knuckles pointed to the marks that lead to the control room. Espio got on one knee and rubbed his fingers against the marks.

"These marks have little sediments of ash in them, let's go check it out.

°°°with Shadow and Rouge°°°

Shadow was in the middle of searching a Bush and Rouge was in the trees, looking at all the land in the western side of the park. She suddenly appeared next to the Bush Shadow was currently at.

" Ok I've searched the whole western side from air, So if there is a bomb over here, it's underground or hidden inside something."

"Yeah, hey we should take a break and eat something to keep up your energy."

"To keep up MY energy, I don't need help, just admit that you're hungry and we'll go eat." Shadow rolled his eyes at her comment and walked over to the Chinese noodle stand. He bought two bowls of noodles and handed one to Rouge. "Here, the food is on me."

"Well, who would've thought. Somewhere in that Moody, emotionally deprived, black hole of a personality, there's a gentlemen locked away."

Shadow raised his eyebrows and smirked. "And I'm sure somewhere in that flirtatious, rude, manipulative personality, there's a nice person hidden away."

" You know the Captain said something like that to me when I first joined G.U.N, but I'm sure you know the bitchy reaction I showed him. Anyway I think you see where I'm going with this conversation."

Shadow started to get uncomfortable he knew what she wanted to know why he really left Metropolis City."Why do you want to know?" He said with a annoyed at to attitude.

"Why don't you want to tell me. I mean it's not like I'm going to judge, I'm just curious."

He took in a deep breath and began to explain himself. " Do you remember that last mission I took in the Mystic Ruins?"

"Yeah, you were supposed to see if there was an illegal underground drug operation there."

"Well..."

(Flash back)

Shadow scoped out the forest that was full of vines, carnivorous animals, and worst of all mosquitoes. "I don't see an entrance to the underground In this section either." He spoke into his communication.

The co-captains voice immediately came into Shadows ear piece.

" Fiona says she found something on the north side, so get your ass up here quick shadow."

The co-captain, Fiona, and Shadow stood in front of a tiny well-hidden tunnel in the bark of a tree.

The co-captain moved the vines and leaves out of the entrance of the tunnel. "Ladies first."

Shadow rolled his eyes and went into the tunnel after Fiona, as soon as he walked in, all he saw where green crystals all around the whole tunnel.

Fiona turned on her flashlight and started to look around.

"Sooo, what makes G.U.N think that their is drug trafficking going on down here?."

Shadow got a green crystal an observed it."There might not even be any drug trafficking going on down here, if there was, some of these crystals would show it,but they don't.

Fiona immediately got irritated after hearing that.

"So this mission is bull shit, co-captain take me home right now!"

"Calm down Fiona. Me, you, and Shadow are going to look in different directions and if we don't find anything, then the mission is close."

The tunnel had lots of pathways, so the tunnel was almost like a maze for Shadow, but he didn't get lost to easily. After wandering around the tunnel for 30 minutes he got bored and decided to take a break.

" I haven't seen anything drug related yet, I wonder if what G.U.N expects to find here isn't a drug operation,but something else much more important." He thought to himself.

After a while Shadow began to notice that he was hearing voices. "I must be crazy..., unless Fiona or the captain is somewhere near by."

Shadow got up and began to call out their names.

"FIONA, CAPTAIN ARE YOU THERE!?"

There was no response.

"There's something wrong here." He thought out loud.

He then noticed the awkward shape a group of crystals on the wall made. He then pulled the whole group of crystals out the wall one by one and underneath them was a door. He thought about turning on his ear piece and informing the other two about what he found,but he thought against it.

When he opened the door, he saw a short hallway that lead to another door,but it was a steel door with a Password lock on it. Shadow easily knocked down the door, and he couldn't believe what he saw. He saw several robots locked behind bars including E-123 Omega.

(Present)

"I set all of the robots free and when the co-captain found out he called me a trader. So I left G.U.N, and after that I just lived with different people, until eventually I left Metropolis City." Shadow explained,ending his story.

" You never found out if a jail cell full of powerful robots was really what G.U.N was really looking for?"

"No, I left because I know what would happen to me if G.U.N thought I was a trader."

"Did the co-captain actually see you set the robots free."

"No, he assumed."

"That means you're home free Shadow!"

"What are you talking about."

"After all this time did you stop to wonder why G.U.N hasn't come after you, since they think you're a trader?"

"No, Why?

"It's because the co-captain never told them, because he has no evidence that you set them free."

"So what."

"So you can come back to G.U.N and find out why they sent you on a mission without giving you all the details and why their calling Omega an enemy!"

"It's risky, but as long as I have the help of a certain bat I think I can pull it off."

Then out of nowhere Amy and Sonic came running at them.

"We found The bomb" They said in unison

"I found it in the control room of The Wrecker." Amy explained.

Sonic noticed Espio and Knuckles running up behind them.

"Perfect timing here comes Espio and Knuckles."

Knuckles was out of breath so Espio explained that they had found a bomb. Rouge began to get confused.

"Wait, so there are two bombs?"

Shadow was standing up now. "How do we know there are not more?"

Sonic thought of a solution.

"Espio where did you find your bomb?"

"In the control room of the terminator."

Amy began to become excited with their progress "Well that means the 3rd one must be in a control room.

Rouge rolled her eyes at Amy's simple mind.

"Yeah, but which ride, this is the biggest section of the park with over 20 rides. The sun is setting and the park closes at 9:00 today. There is just not enough time to search all the control rooms, and without getting caught by security at that."

Shadow had thought over what Rouge said."Well their bombs came out of the control room of the main attraction In their section of the park, so what's the main attraction of this section of the park.

"The monster mansion!"They all said in unison

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"Thank you for reading and again I'm sorry if I kept you all waiting for a long time :)


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